USAFA, Colo. -
With a dominant offensive performance in the opening half, the Air Force lacrosse team scored a 15-6 victory over Furman Saturday afternoon at Falcon Stadium. With the victory, the Falcons move to 1-1 on the season, while the Paladins fall to 0-3 on the year.

Senior captain Erik Smith (Golden, Colo.) tallied three of his career-high-tying four goals in the opening period to lead the Falcons' offense, while classmates Kyle Cassady (Upper Arlington, Ohio), Marcus Walker (Denver, Colo.) and Mike Crampton (Kinnelon, N.J.) added two goals each.

It took nearly five minutes for the first goal of the game to be registered, but the man-up score by Smith with 10:15 on the clock opened the floodgates, as Cassady and Walker added two more scores in the next two minutes.

Air Force's lead grew to 4-0 before Furman tallied its first goal of the game with 5:15 remaining in the opening period, but the Falcons notched four more scores over the remainder of the quarter to push its advantage to 8-1.

In the second period, Air Force shut out Furman, while continuing to add to its lead. Two of the Falcons' second quarter goals came in the last minute of the period, as Air Force took a 12-1 cushion into the locker room.

The Falcons went on to lead 14-1 midway through the third period, before Furman's offense found a spark, tallying three goals in the final three minutes of the quarter. Air Force's final goal of the game came at the 9:50 mark in the fourth period, with a score from Smith during a 30-stall warning, while the Paladins added two more goals to account for the final margin.

Furman had a 29-23 edge on ground balls for the game, and outshot the Falcons, 32-28 for the game, and 18-8 in the second half alone. The Paladins also won the battle at the face-off X, taking 14-of-24 draws. However, the Falcons recorded 12 saves, compared to just six for Furman, and held the Paladins to 2-of-5 on the EMO.

The Falcons return to action next week, Feb. 22-23, at the Frontier Airlines Face-Off Classic, hosted by Denver. Air Force will take on Canisius on Saturday, while facing Marist in Sunday's game.